Actors & Directors
- Eric Brown
- Joel Fluellen
- Richard Dysart
- Cicely Tyson
- John Korty
- Arnold Wilkerson
Release date: 2003-01-14 Run time: 112 min. Creator: Robert W. Christiansen Price: £14.95
Review The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman [1974] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Sony Wonder:
Actors & Directors
- Johnny Depp
- Tom Berenger
- Andrew B. Clark
- Willem Dafoe
- Keith David
Release date: 2007-06-05 Run time: 120 min. Creator: Georges Delerue Price: £10.31
Review Platoon [1987] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:Winning a raft of awards, not least of which four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, Oliver Stone's Platoon was a box-office smash heralding Hollywood's second wave of Vietnam war films. Where predecessors The Deer Hunter (1978) and Apocalypse Now (1979) were elaborate epics, Platoon simply showed the daily reality of the war from the point of view of ordinary soldiers. Stone's own service in Vietnam gives his work a unique authenticity. Charlie Sheen gives his best performance to date, enduring a series of increasingly large-scale and bloody battles which retrospectively make one wonder why Saving Private Ryan was hailed as so new. Against this gruelling verity the film falters over the symbolic conflict between good and evil sergeants played by Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger. Even though this was also based in real life, it strikes a too conventionally Hollywood-like note in a film which otherwise maintains much of the raw power of Stone's other film from 1986, Salvador. Johnny Depp fans should look out for an early appearance by the star. Stone would return to Vietnam with the more sophisticated Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Heaven and Earth (1993). On the DVD: The 50-minute documentary "Tour of the Inferno" goes beyond the usual "making-of" to present a personal account both of the film and of Stone's own time in Vietnam. Likewise the two audio commentaries-one by Stone, the other by Captain Dale Dye, fellow veteran and military technical advisor-range between the making of the film and the degree to which the actors came to inhabit their parts, to their own wartime experiences. [+]
Both commentaries bring a fresh level of appreciation and understanding to the film. Also included is the original trailer and three TV commercials, together with well-presented stills galleries of behind-the-scenes photos and poster art. Following a credit sequence marred by dirt on the print, the anamorphically enhanced 1. 77:1 image is sharp and clear. The many night scenes are very dark but remain easily comprehensible. The three-channel Dolby Digital sound is suitably raw and powerful, though an early sequence featuring rain in the jungle suffers from very distracting repeated drop-outs in the left channel. -Gary S Dalkin.
Actors & Directors
- Yves Montand
- Véra Clouzot
- Peter van Eyck
- Henri-Georges Clouzot
- Charles Vanel
- Folco Lulli
Release date: 2005-10-25 Run time: 131 min. Creator: Georges Arnaud Price: £17.91
Review The Wages of Fear [1953] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:In 1953, before any American studio exec used the phrase "high concept", Henri-George Clouzot's The Wages of Fear boasted a premise so literally explosive that audiences were excited before they got into the theatres. With an oil-fire burning out of control deep in the South American jungle, two lorryloads of highly unstable nitro-glycerin have to be driven through miles of unstable terrain littered with dangerous turns, crumbling planks, falling rocks and mediocre hardtop. One good jolt will vaporise truck, nitro, drivers and a substantial swathe of the countryside, so the company recruits desperate souls among the loser tramps who loiter around the nowhere town of Las Piedras, begging for any kind of work. On the road, Clouzot stages a string of unforgettable sequences: one stretch of badly paved track can only be crossed by driving at under six miles an hour or over 40; a mountain turn requires that the trucks back out onto a rickety, rotten wooden structure; a 50-ton boulder has fallen into the road, and one of the drivers calmly drains a litre of nitro into his thermos to blow it up, only remembering when the fuse is lit that this will rain pebbles all over the countryside and a few good hits on the cargo will set it off. This is perhaps as great a mix of action-adventure and contest as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and still a textbook example of sustained suspense. On the DVD: The print is in great shape, though the image is a little soft; the menu has a clever explosive aspect and uses the same vintage artwork as the sleeve cannily combined with a snippet. There are trailers for both Wages and Clozuot's other masterpiece, Les Diaboliques, as well as biographies of the principal cast, eight stills and three posters. -Kim Newman.
Actors & Directors
- Henry Travers
- Thomas Mitchell
- Lionel Barrymore
- Donna Reed
- James Stewart
- Frank Capra
Release date: 2001-08-14 Run time: 130 min. Creator: Michael Wilson Price: £37.95
Review It's a Wonderful Life [1946] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Republic Pictures:Now perhaps the most beloved American film, It's a Wonderful Life was largely forgotten for years, due to a copyright quirk. Only in the late 1970s did it find its audience through repeated TV showings. Frank Capra's masterwork deserves its status as a feel-good communal event, but it is also one of the most fascinating films in the American cinema, a multilayered work of Dickensian density. George Bailey (played superbly by James Stewart) grows up in the small town of Bedford Falls, dreaming dreams of adventure and travel, but circumstances conspire to keep him enslaved to his home turf. Frustrated by his life, and haunted by an impending scandal, George prepares to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. A heavenly messenger (Henry Travers) arrives to show him a vision: what the world would have been like if George had never been born. The sequence is a vivid depiction of the American Dream gone bad, and probably the wildest thing Capra ever shot (the director's optimistic vision may have darkened during his experiences making military films in World War II). Capra's triumph is to acknowledge the difficulties and disappointments of life, while affirming-in the teary-eyed final reel-his cherished values of friendship and individual achievement. It's a Wonderful Life was not a big hit on its initial release, and it won no Oscars (Capra and Stewart were nominated); but it continues to weave a special magic. -Robert Horton.
Actors & Directors
- Vera Miles
- Ward Bond
- Natalie Wood
- John Ford
- John Wayne
- Jeffrey Hunter
Release date: 1997-10-29 Run time: 119 min. Creator: Patrick Ford Price: £6.70
Review The Searchers [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:A favourite film of some of the world's greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford's The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it's the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western-the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of The West. The story takes place in Texas in 1868; Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who visits his brother and sister-in-law at their ranch and is horrified when they are killed by marauding Comanches. Ethan's search for a surviving niece (played by young Natalie Wood) becomes an all-consuming obsession. With the help of a family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is himself part-Cherokee, Ethan hits the trail on a five-year quest for revenge. At the peak of his masterful talent, director Ford crafts this classic tale as an embittered examination of racism and blind hatred, provoking Wayne to give one of the best performances of his career. As with many of Ford's classic Westerns, The Searchers must contend with revisionism in its stereotypical treatment of "savage" Native Americans, and the film's visual beauty (the final shot is one of the great images in all of Western culture) is compromised by some uneven performances and stilted dialogue. Still, this is undeniably one of the greatest Westerns ever made. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.
Actors & Directors
- Jeremy Irons
- John Malkovich
- Gabriel Byrne
- Leonardo DiCaprio
- Randall Wallace
- Gérard Depardieu
Release date: 1998-08-12 Run time: 132 min. Creator: Alexandre Dumas père Price: £5.99
Review The Man in the Iron Mask [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:Footnotes in film books are likely to reduce this swashbuckling adventure down to a simple description: it was the first movie to star Leonardo DiCaprio after the phenomenal success of Titanic. As such, The Man in the Iron Mask automatically attracted a box-office stampede of Leo's young female fans, but critical reaction was deservedly mixed. Having earned his directorial debut after writing the Oscar-winning script for Mel Gibson's Braveheart, Randall Wallace wrote and directed this ambitious version of the often-filmed classic novel by Alexandre Dumas. DiCaprio plays dual roles as the despotic King Louis XIV, who rules France with an iron fist, and the king's twin brother, Philippe, who languishes in prison under an iron mask, his identity concealed to prevent an overthrow of Louis' throne. But Louis' abuse of power ultimately enrages Athos (John Malkovich), one of the original Four Musketeers, who recruits his former partners (Gabriel Byrne, Gérard Depardieu, and Jeremy Irons) in a plot to liberate Philippe and install him as the king's identical replacement. Once this plot is set in motion and the Musketeers are each given moments in the spotlight, the film kicks into gear and offers plenty of entertainment in the grand style of vintage swashbucklers. But it's also sidetracked by excessive length and disposable subplots, and for all his post-Titanic star power, the boyish DiCaprio just isn't yet "man" enough to be fully convincing in his title role. Still, this is an entertaining film, no less enjoyable for falling short of the greatness to which it aspired. -Jeff Shannon.
Actors & Directors
- Jeff Daniels
- Jonathan Demme
- Leib Lensky
- George 'Red' Schwartz
- Melanie Griffith
- Tracey Walter
Release date: 2001-06-05 Run time: 113 min. Creator: Ronald M. Bozman Price: £9.08
Review Something Wild [1986] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:That Jonathan Demme's Something Wild is compelling from first to last is down to the chemistry between Melanie Griffith (Lulu) and Jeff Daniels (Charlie). She's bad, trashy and into handcuffed sex with strangers in motel rooms: she even manages to look sexy in a black bobbed wig. He's Mr Ordinary, with suit and steady job and-apparently-a wife and kids. Lulu has him mesmerised from the very start, as she offers him a lift back to the office but instead drives to Pennsylvania for her high-school reunion, stealing from garages along the way. Passing Charlie off as her husband, they run into problems when she meets her real one-the greasy, violent Ray, recently out of jail (Liotta, superb here)-and Charlie bumps into a guy from his office. Ray is not about to give up Lulu and pursues the couple relentlessly back to New York, the chase culminating, inevitably, in violence. It's a most unlikely love story, but as Charlie discovers he's less of a grey man than we all first thought, and a softer side of Lulu is revealed, it seems possible that we could be looking at a happy ending. This is a film that seems as fresh today as when it first appeared and remains one of Demme's finest achievements. On the DVD: Something Wild is a pretty basic DVD package. There are no extras beyond the bog-standard trailer and scene-selection options. [+]
The picture quality itself is fine, though it's not as pristine as you'd find with more recent films. The spoken languages and subtitles are restricted to English and Spanish. -Harriet Smith.
Actors & Directors
- Lorenzo Piani
- Samy Pavel
- Virgina Ciuffini
- Paolo Taviani
- Vittorio Taviani
- Renato Cestiè
- Giulio Brogi
Release date: 2005-05-17 Run time: 87 min. Price: £9.38
Review St. Michael Had a Rooster [1971] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Fox Lorber:
Actors & Directors
- Bill Paxton
- Kevin Bacon
- Tom Hanks
- Gary Sinise
- Ron Howard
- Ed Harris
Release date: 2006-08-22 Run time: 140 min. Creator: Al Reinert Price: £4.85
Review Apollo 13 [1995] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Universal Studios:NASA's worst nightmare turned into one of the space agency's most heroic moments in 1970, when the Apollo 13 crew was forced to hobble home in a disabled capsule after an explosion seriously damaged the moon-bound spacecraft. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton play (respectively) astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise in director Ron Howard's intense, painstakingly authentic docudrama. The Apollo 13 crew and Houston-based mission controllers race against time and heavy odds to return the damaged spacecraft safely to Earth from a distance of 205,500 miles. Using state-of-the-art special effects and ingenious film-making techniques, Howard and his stellar cast and crew build nail-biting tension while maintaining close fidelity to the facts. The result is a fitting tribute to the Apollo 13 mission and one of the biggest box-office hits of 1995. -Jeff Shannon NASA's worst nightmare turned into one of the space agency's most heroic moments in 1970, when the Apollo 13 crew was forced to hobble home in a disabled capsule after an explosion seriously damaged the moon-bound spacecraft. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton play (respectively) astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise in director Ron Howard's intense, painstakingly authentic docudrama. The Apollo 13 crew and Houston-based mission controllers race against time and heavy odds to return the damaged spacecraft safely to Earth from a distance of 205,500 miles. Using state-of-the-art special effects and ingenious filmmaking techniques, Howard and his stellar cast and crew build nail-biting tension while maintaining close fidelity to the facts. The result is a fitting tribute to the Apollo 13 mission and one of the biggest box-office hits of 1995. [+]
-Jeff Shannon.
Actors & Directors
- Jason Schwartzman
- Kirsten Dunst
- Sofia Coppola
- Judy Davis
- Rose Byrne
- Rip Torn
Release date: 2007-02-13 Run time: 123 min. Creator: Ross Katz Price: £6.37
Review Marie Antoinette [2006] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Sony Pictures:
Actors & Directors
- Meryl Streep
- John Savage
- Michael Cimino
- John Cazale
- Christopher Walken
- Robert De Niro
Release date: 2006-12-26 Run time: 182 min. Creator: Deric Washburn
Review The Deer Hunter [US Import] [HD DVD] [1979] / Universal Studios:The Deer Hunter is an expansive portrait of friendship in a Pennsylvania steel town, and of the effects of the Vietnam War. Led by the trio of Robert De Niro, John Savage and Christopher Walken (who won a supporting actor Oscar), the first hour is dominated by an engrossing Russian Orthodox wedding and reception. When the drama moves overseas it switches from anthropologically realistic documentation of a community's rituals to highly controversial and still shocking Russian Roulette scenes, symbolising the random horror of war. Unforgettable as they are, the Vietnam sequences occupy less than a third of the three-hour running time; defying movie convention The Deer Hunter is fundamentally a before-and-after ensemble character study anchored by De Niro's great performance. Although it was the first serious Hollywood feature to address the Vietnam War, the plausibility of some of the later plot developments raises awkward questions. But the film remains powerfully effective, its deliberate pace, naturalistic overlapping dialogue and unflinching seriousness marking it very much a product of the 1970s. With nine Oscar nominations and five wins, including Best Picture and Director, it's a cinematic landmark that stands the test time, almost incidentally setting Meryl Streep on the road to superstardom in her first leading role. On the DVD: The Deer Hunter: Special Edition has the film on the first disc with a serious yet amiable Region 2 exclusive discussion track between director Michael Cimino and critic SX Finnie. The picture is anamorphically enhanced at 2. 35:1, and perfectly reproduces Vilmos Zsigmond's deliberately desaturated, necessarily grainy cinematography. [+]
The Dolby Digital 5. 1 soundtrack clearly reveals the mono original, being largely focused on the centre speaker and while it does a good job, some of the choral music does sound harsh. Dialogue is sometimes indecipherable, but that's due to the naturalistic nature of the original sound recording and mixing. Disc 2 offers excellent new interviews with Jon Savage (15 mins), Vilmos Zsigmond (15 mins) and Michael Cimino (23 mins). Also included is the original trailer (anamorphically enhanced 2. 35:1), a routine photo gallery and a DVD version of the original press brochure. There's no trace of the 40 minutes of deleted material referred to by Cimino, but this presentation is still an object lesson in how quality of extras triumphs over quantity. -Gary S Dalkin.
Actors & Directors
- Bryan Brown
- Charles 'Bud' Tingwell
- Bruce Beresford
- Jack Thompson
- John Waters
- Edward Woodward
Release date: 1997-11-12 Run time: 107 min. Creator: Jonathan Hardy
Review Breaker Morant [1980] / Fox Lorber:Before coming to America to make such acclaimed films as Tender Mercies and Driving Miss Daisy, Australian director Bruce Beresford made a lasting impression with this compelling courtroom drama, considered one the finest films of the Australian new wave of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Based on a true story about three soldiers in the Boer War who are served up as political scapegoats of the British Empire, the film uses a flashback structure to dramatise the courtroom testimony. It begins when the three Australian soldiers are railroaded for the justified killing of a German missionary and placed on trial for court-martial not as a matter of justice, but to mollify the German government for the sake of political expediency. Burdened with a competent but inexperienced and hopelessly disadvantaged lawyer, the soldiers realise that their fate has been sealed and the outcome of their trial is a fait accompli. Unfolding with urgent precision and a riveting focus on its well-drawn characters, Breaker Morant was the all-time box-office hit in Australia at the time of its release in 1980, and it remains one of the very best historical dramas ever made. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.
Actors & Directors
- Clark Gable
- Jameson Thomas
- Claudette Colbert
- Roscoe Karns
- Walter Connolly
- Frank Capra
Release date: 1999-12-28 Run time: 105 min. Creator: Robert Riskin Price: £13.46
Review It Happened One Night [1934] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:Director Frank Capra (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) took home every Oscar in the book (well, okay, all the major ones) for this seminal 1934 comedy starring Clark Gable as a hard-bitten reporter who stays close to a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) so not to lose a good story. Funny and sexy, the film is full of memorable scenes often referred to in other films, such as the "Wall of Jericho" (a mere bedcover hung on a clothesline down the middle of the room), and Colbert's famous flash of thigh to stop a speeding car in its tracks. Capra's brisk, urbane brand of wit was a perfect complement to his populist faith in the common man (in this case, Gable's character), and this inspiration makes this film a spirited entertainment and an uplifting experience. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.
Actors & Directors
- Donald Crisp
- Joseph Schildkraut
- Paul Muni
- William Dieterle
- Gloria Holden
- Gale Sondergaard
Release date: 2005-02-01 Run time: 116 min. Price: £9.20
Review The Life of Emile Zola [1937] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:
Actors & Directors
- Catherine Zeta-Jones
- Peter Gallagher
- Eva Marie Saint
- Robert Lieberman
- Robert H. Lieberman
- Marilu Henner
- Tim Curry
Release date: 2004-12-07 Run time: 180 min. Price: £2.85
Review The Titanic [1996] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Platinum Disc:
Actors & Directors
- Wally Cassell
- Burgess Meredith
- Freddie Steele
- Jimmy Lloyd
- Robert Mitchum
- William A. Wellman
Release date: 2000-05-23 Run time: 108 min. Creator: Ernie Pyle Price: £31.98
Review The Story of G.I. Joe [1945] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Image Entertainment:
Actors & Directors
- Minoru Chiaki
- Takashi Shimura
- Toshirô Mifune
- Yoshio Inaba
- Seiji Miyaguchi
- Akira Kurosawa
Release date: 1998-08-05 Run time: 207 min. Price: £44.93
Review Seven Samurai - Criterion Collection [1954] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:Unanimously hailed as one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of the motion picture, Seven Samurai has inspired countless films modelled after its basic premise. But Akira Kurosawa's classic 1954 action drama has never been surpassed in terms of sheer power of emotion, kinetic energy, and dynamic character development. The story is set in the 1600s, when the residents of a small Japanese village are seeking protection against repeated attacks by a band of marauding thieves. Offering mere handfuls of rice as payment, they hire seven unemployed "ronin" (masterless samurai), including a boastful swordsman (Toshiro Mifune) who is actually a farmer's son desperately seeking glory and acceptance. The samurai get acquainted with but remain distant from the villagers, knowing that their assignment may prove to be fatal. The climactic battle with the raiding thieves remains one of the most breathtaking sequences ever filmed. It's poetry in hyperactive motion and one of Kurosawa's crowning cinematic achievements. This is not a film that can be well served by any synopsis; it must be seen to be appreciated and belongs on the short list of any definitive home-video library. -Jeff Shannon.
Actors & Directors
- Alan Hale Jr.
- Stuart Randall
- Anthony Dexter
- Jody Lawrance
- Lew Landers
- Robert Clarke
Release date: 2005-10-25 Run time: 75 min. Creator: Jack Pollexfen Price: £4.10
Review Captain John Smith and Pocahontas [1953] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:
Actors & Directors
- Abdolrahman Bagheri
- Mir Hossein Noori
- Safar Ali Moradi
- Abbas Kiarostami
- Homayoun Ershadi
- Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari
Release date: 1999-05-18 Run time: 95 min. Creator: Homayun Payvar Price: £14.17
Review Taste of Cherry [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:
Actors & Directors
- Matthew Cassel
- Vincent Barbi
- Cliff Carnell
- Nick Cassavetes
- Katherine Cassavetes
Release date: 2008-11-04 Run time: 147 min. Creator: Bo Harwood Price: £20.32
Review A Woman Under the Influence [1974] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:
| Models & Brands: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman [1974] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Platoon [1987] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Wages of Fear [1953] (REGION 1) (NTSC), It's a Wonderful Life [1946] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Searchers [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Man in the Iron Mask [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Something Wild [1986] (REGION 1) (NTSC), St. Michael Had a Rooster [1971] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Apollo 13 [1995] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Marie Antoinette [2006] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Deer Hunter [US Import] [HD DVD] [1979], Breaker Morant [1980], It Happened One Night [1934] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Life of Emile Zola [1937] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Titanic [1996] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Story of G.I. Joe [1945] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Seven Samurai - Criterion Collection [1954] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Captain John Smith and Pocahontas [1953] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Taste of Cherry [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC), A Woman Under the Influence [1974] (REGION 1) (NTSC) |